Ann Bell
1990 was the year Ann Bell became involved with Ipswich Little Athletics. As soon as she started she took up the role of Centre Manager for three years, followed by Centre Recorder for eight years and Secretary for another eight years.
For many years, Ann was the glue that held Ipswich Little Athletics together. She was dedicated and passionate about the administration side of running the Centre.
For her dedication Ann was awarded Life Membership by Ipswich Little Athletics in 1999.
She was the Regional/Zone Coordinator for 1 year followed by Zone Secretary for 2 years and finishing with Zone Recorder, a position she held for 10 years.
Ann worked on the LAQ Officials Committee for 2 years and was an Officials Workshop Presenter. She was part of the team that, under Alison Quirke, developed the Officials Education Scheme that was taken up by the Australian Little Athletics Association (now Little Athletics Australia) in the 1990’s. Ann also assisted with the grading of Officials Papers.
At LAQ competitions Ann was the Long Jump Chief for three years before taking on the role as Chief Recorder for 10 years. She then became LAQ’s Medals Coordinator for seven years.
She assisted with LAQ’s 25th Anniversary celebrations as well as LAQ’s, Centre Development Plan and Centre Committee Job Guidelines.
Over an 18 year period from 2001 – 2019, Ipswich Little Athletics won the LAQ Administration Award a total of 14 times, was a runner up once and 3rd place three times. This was due to Ann’s excellence in Centre administration. The award was cheekily nicknamed the Ipswich Administration Award for a number of years!
Throughout her time with Little Athletics, Ann has been awarded the following for her passion, dedication and unselfish service to our sport:
- Service Award 1999
- Merit Award 1991
- Distinguished Merit 2000
- Volunteer of the Year 2010 and
- Life Membership 2013
In addition to Ann’s achievements above, she was also a recipient of the Australian Sports Medal in 2001 and the Ipswich City Council Australia Day Medal in 2002.
Ann still helps run the canteen at Ipswich Little Athletics for school meets and is the Athletics Liaison Officer for the Ipswich City Council. She is also still involved at Ipswich helping with recording and record keeping.